


First Kiss

by liseuse



Category: The Secret Country - Pamela Dean
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-02
Updated: 2010-06-02
Packaged: 2017-10-09 21:08:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/91643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liseuse/pseuds/liseuse





	First Kiss

Edward remembers his first kiss in a sort of hazy way. He was four or five and running around the playground during recess when Louisa came up to him and planted a wet kiss on his cheek and ran off giggling. He'd gone straight back to running around and it made his mother giggle slightly when he told her later. But he never claims that as his first kiss. Edward knows that the first kiss that really mattered was the one Ruth solemnly placed on his forehead as he rose from being crowned. That was the kiss that meant they were really playing, and that made it all seem real. It hadn't mattered in that moment that really he knew Ruth was his cousin, because for a second the world shimmered slightly and he saw himself, older and taller, walking down a corridor hand in hand with an older version of Ruth. This wasn't the Ruth he knew, that was his cousin and playmate and nothing more, but some other Ruth. Distant, sharper looking and a little more haughty in her bearing. Then the world had shimmered back into place, and he was standing in front of the real Ruth, and being handed a stick that was pretending to be the sword of the Royal House. In Ruth's next words to him, Ted could see the parts of her she'd brought to the game and made into Lady Ruth, and a distinct delicious shiver ran down his spine.


End file.
